1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to computing systems and, more particularly, to the modeling and management of operating system instances and services.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many enterprises today utilize multiprocessing computer systems, and other systems in which resources are shared, cooperate, or otherwise function to accomplish various tasks. In some cases, these systems include multiple resources which are allocated for particular tasks. In such cases, resources which are allocated for particular tasks, or which are allocated for use by particular groups, may be logically grouped together into a separate domain. For example, a single system may be configured with separate domains for different departments in an organization such as accounting and research. Domains may be configured in such a manner that each domain operates independently of the other and does not have access to the resources or data of the other. Isolating domains from one another may also offer an increased degree of security.
Generally speaking, centralized management of such systems is desired. Numerous management and system administration tasks may be handled by a service processor. Generally speaking, a service processor is an adjunct processing unit that supports the operation of an enterprise server. Examples of such management tasks include inserting or removing a system board, logically attaching or detaching a board, creating, removing, or renaming a domain, performing a bringup operation on a domain, rebooting a domain, automatic domain recovery operations due to events such as system panics or hardware failures, and so on.
While direct management of hardware resources in a computing system enable an administrator to configure systems in a variety of ways, such an approach can be cumbersome and lacking in flexibility.
Accordingly, a method and mechanism for efficient computing system management is desired.